Rahul aur Akhilesh ki khaatir...SP, Cong strike musical note

With 17 and 63 LS seats for the Congress and SP in UP, the parties have initiated coordinated efforts to consolidate each other while also launching a joint campaign song

LUCKNOW Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress – the two INDIA bloc partners in Uttar Pradesh - are now in “musical sync” for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls after reaching a seat-sharing agreement on February 21. With 17 and 63 Lok Sabha seats for the Congress and SP, respectively, the parties have initiated coordinated efforts to consolidate each other while also launching a joint campaign song: ‘Gathbandhan hai, gathbandhan hai; yeh INDIA ka gathbandhan hai; Dilli mein pravesh ki khaatir, Rahul aur Akhilesh ki khaatir; Samvidhaan bachana hai toh, vote karo is desh ki khaatir’.

The video version of the song has clips from the joint show that Akhilesh and Rahul put up in Agra on February 25 when the former joined Rahul’s Nyay Yatra in Taj City; more campaign songs are in the works (File Photo)

The four-minute song’s opening lines call for making the alliance attain power at the centre for the sake of Akhilesh Yadav-Rahul Gandhi and for the sake of the Constitution.

The video version of the song has clips from the joint show that Akhilesh and Rahul put up in Agra on February 25 when the former joined Rahul’s Nyay Yatra in Taj City. More campaign songs are in the works. The Congress is also working on a song: ‘Samvidhaan aur loktantra ko bachana hai, phir se janata ka raaj laana hai; Dalit-Pichhdon ki ladai; INDIA gathbandhan aur hum ladengey bhai’.

But songs apart, that would be heard at joint rallies, roadshows, and other campaigns by the alliance leaders in days to come, the two parties since Sunday began joint meetings -- when Congress UP in-charge Avinash Pande, UP Congress president Ajay Rai and others called on Akhilesh Yadav launching the coordination programme between the two parties.

The next day, the Ajay Rai-led Congress delegation had a first interactive meeting for the district leaderships of the two parties (from the 17 LS constituencies allotted to the Congress).

Since February 21, the two parties seem to be correcting some of the mistakes made in their 2017 alliance for UP assembly polls that failed. In 2022, the SP could win only 47 seats (against its tally of 224 in 2012) and the Congress won seven seats (against its 28 seats win in 2012). The alliance came when the Congress had only one Lok Sabha seat in UP and the SP only three.

In 2017, SP and Congress had a lot of high-profile campaigns with tag lines ‘UP ke ladke’ (Rahul and Akhilesh) but did not coordinate well at the booth level. But now, the two parties have resolved to work concertedly at the booth level.

On Sunday, Akhilesh Yadav told Avinash Pande that his party’s booth level workers would lend full support to the Congress on 17 seats it is contesting in the state. Ajay Rai said the Congress would do the same on the 63 seats that the SP is contesting.

Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav are likely to address a joint press conference in Lucknow after the LS polls notification expected in mid-March. The two parties will chalk out joint campaigns -- rallies, rath yatras and road shows in each other’s constituencies.